Aussie eSports site GAMURS raises $3.5m to expand games coverage and go global

Australian eSports media company GAMURS, which started out pitching itself as a Facebook for competitive and social gamers has closed a $3.5 million capital raise led by Aura Funds Management, as it looks to expand into new forms of storytelling.

The company was founded by Riad Chikhani, when he was still a teenager, and has recently opened a US office in Austin, Texas. He said the increasing popularity of eSports represented a huge opportunity for GAMURS, and it was looking to expand to start covering more eSports games.

GAMURS founder Riad Chikhani has ambitious plans for the company's expansion after raising capital. James Brickwood

In late 2016 GAMURS acquired website Dot Esports and it has now merged its own content into that website to make it its main editorial brand covering eSports.

"The market has seen rapid growth and every year the projections are well below what actually happens," Mr Chikani said.

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"The basic eSports games like League of Legends, Counter-Strike and Dota are starting to hit their maximum viewership, but more game publishers are focusing on bringing an eSports side to the games they're developing.

"More fans will be created organically because the games they love will become eSports titles and we think there will be between 700-800 million viewers in the next few years."

In the past year GAMURS hit 2.7 million monthly active users and claims to be on track to achieve 4.5 million before the end of the year. By the end of 2018, Mr Chikani said GAMURS is targeting 10 million monthly active users.

Blockchain gambling

The company has also partnered with peer-to-peer social betting app Puntaa to form a licensed global eSports wagering brand called Skrilla, which is built on the Ethereum blockchain and is having a token sale known as an initial coin offering.

eSports are sometimes played in stadiums. Here, teams compete against each other playing Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. AP

In 2015 the business graduated from the NRMA Slingshot Jumpstart accelerator program and has previously raised capital from Artesian, Pearl Ventures and a range of high net worth investors.

Aura Funds Management associate director Tristan Terry said the fund had done almost a year of due diligence before investing in GAMURS.

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"As it becomes more mainstream … you will have the traditional marketing and technology businesses also looking at it and I think the niche tag will slowly disappear and it will become a standalone sector that demands the dollars of more traditional media companies," Mr Terry said.

"For us, the biggest focus of our investment process is to identify those sectors that are rising tides. This is a well-backed business with a strong register and VCs we trust. Riad has also done a great job of building it up from a 'Facebook for gamers' and he's added the right people."

In late 2016 GAMURS acquired website Dot Esports and it has now merged its own content into that website to make it its main editorial brand covering eSports.

The $3.5 million raised will fund the company for at least 14 months and Mr Chikhani said he had chosen to take Aura on as an investor because of its connections to Asia.

Aura has also backed start-ups such as Shippit, Institchu, and listed sports technology company Catapult.

Global market

The eSports market has started to attract the interest of major traditional sports teams. The Adelaide Crows became the first mainstream sporting club in Australia to invest in competitive video gaming in May, acquiring Legacy Esports, which is best known for its League of Legends team.

eSports audiences are huge, with games like League of Legends particularly popular.

Around the world eSports is also taking off. France's biggest football club, Paris Saint-Germain, joined forces with media company Webedia in 2016 to form League of Legends and Fifa teams, while the Philadelphia 76ers bought eSports team Dignitas.

One third of the world's eSports gamers are in China, and Mr Chikhani said he intends to expand the GAMURS platform into Asia, creating targeted content for the audience to appeal to a new group of users.

"Our main focus is to continuously grow the monthly active users. That's how we measure our success. Then we'll look at more meaningful ways to drive revenue and solve problems for our users," he said.

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